About You Now
by Katarina Sparrow 19
Summary: Oliver Twist. A oneshot songfic to About You Now by Miranda Cosgrove. Nancy reflects on her relationship with Dodger after he is shipped to Australia. Assume Bill's dead in this. Full Summary inside. Nancy/Dodger. Please R&R.


About You Now

A/N: Something that struck me on the way back from our band/choir competition today. A songfic to About You Now by Miranda Cosgrove. I got the lyrics by ear so hopefully everything's right. I really think it fits the situation well, although this took place in neither book nor musical. Suppose Bill's dead, Nancy's not, and she's reflecting on Dodger who's been shipped off to Australia after being caught. Also assume for me if you will that Dodger was 18 at the time of his capture. Nancy/Dodger. Enjoy, please R&R.

Disclaimer: Song, About You Now by Miranda Cosgrove. I don't own Oliver Twist or it's characters.

_Italics _are song lyrics

Underlined words are flashbacks

_Maybe I'm Wrong,_

_You decide..._

When a certain thief that went by the name of Fagin returned to his flat that evening he was surprised to find a one Miss Nancy sobbing at his table. Her whole body was heaving heavily as great tears and sighs racked her body. Alarmed Fagin ran to her.

"Nancy my dear, what's wrong? Speak child, what's gotten into you?" Nancy looked up at him, her face blotchy and tear stained, her eyes puffed beyond reason and still spilling tears. She couldn't speak, all she could do was hold up a hat. The boy's hat, the thing was unmistakable. It had been knocked off his head the day he was caught. Fagin couldn't imagine where she'd found it at.

_Should have been strong..._

Dodger looked at Nancy, bruises covering her face and her arms alike once again. This was the second time this week. He couldn't stand it and he certainly didn't know how she did. Bill beat her up and down like some rag doll and she just sat there and took it. Gently he went and approached her as she sat by the fire, none of the other boys were home.

"Nancy?" he asked gently. The girl looked up at him forlornly.

"Can't you just leave me be like the rest of um'," she asked in almost a violent manner. Dodger reeled back as though he'd been slapped. He wanted so desperately to help the poor girl in front of him, but curiosity overcame sympathy.

"Why do you let him do this to you?" he said annoyed. "You let him beat you up and down like some bleedin' rag doll when there are ways to escape." 

"Do you think I like it when he hits me Dodge?" she shrieked. "I ain't got no choice."

"You could choose," he said through gritted teeth "to stand up to 'im." 

"So he can knock me brains in harder is that it? You act like I've got somethin' I can do about all of this in the first place!" Dodger glowered at her from where he stood.

"You could choose to show some bloody strength!"Nancy lept from her seat and grasped Dodger violently by the collar. He looked up at her with alarm, she'd never laid so much as an unkind word in his direction before.

"**Don't** you let me hear you say that again. Don't you ever, never ever question what kind of strength I got. It's all I can take to face you lot with the bruises he puts on me."

"Dodger was right," Nancy muttered as she continued to stain Fagin's coat. "I should've been strong. I could've stood up to him if I'd really wanted to get away." Nancy clutched Dodger's hat and sobbed harder.

"I don't understand!" Dodger cried to her as she released his collar. "I can't understand how you could let him beat you like that when there are those who would love you twice as well! And oh sure you always say 'it's just the way I feel about 'im Dodge' but what's the bleedin' point in lovin' a man that black in the 'eart. I know 'ow you feel 'bout 'im, but 'ow do you feel 'bout me Nance!" Nancy stared at him as if he was a foreign object for a moment before she quickly gathered up her shawl and turned to leave. As Dodger sat watching her with tears lacing his deep blue eyes he couldn't believe what he had said. The words that had been held up inside of him for so long had come exploding out as if on cue. Nancy paused at the top of the stairs and spoke to him without turning around.

"I could never love you as more then a brother Dodge."

_Yeah I lied!_

_Nobody gets me like...you._

Fagin sat holding Nancy as she continued to sob into him relentlessly, her whole body absolutely convulsing with her sorrow. All Fagin knew to do was clutch the poor girl to him and hope she'd cry enough to lull herself into sleep. He'd seen her upset, but never anything likes this. The old man found himself distinctly wishing Dodger was there, the boy always seemed to know what Nancy was thinking and feeling. He'd have known what to do.

_Couldn't keep hold of you then,_

_How could I know what you meant?_

_There was nothing to compare, to..._

"Hey Bet," Nancy said to her friend as they prepared for work that evening. The young blonde across the room looked up in a way as being meant to acknowledge the firey red head's question. "You notice anything strange 'bout Dodge lately?" Bet shrugged slightly as she continued to put her make-up on.

"Can't say as I have, what do you mean exactly?"

"He keep stain' at me whenever I go over to Fagin's and I went over there a few days ago after Bill and I got into a real fisticuffs 'bout somethin' and Dodger seemed mad enough to kill. Then he kept trying to help fix me up and said that he'd never hit a lady the way Bill hits me. And then he added **especially** if said lady was as pretty as me."

Nancy wanted to slam her head on the table as she thought back to Dodger's comment on that particular day. How could she have been so stupid, Dodger had been trying to tell her he had feelings for her, and she was practically blind to the whole fact. Or at least she had been when he was around to have, and now that she knew what he'd meant, it was too late.

_There's a mountain between us..._

Mountain, no. Ocean yes. They'd shipped the boy off to Australia! She sobbed harder, there was no way she'd ever see him again.

_But there's one thing I'm sure of,_

_That I know, how I feel, about you!_

_Can we bring yesterday, back around?_

_Cuz' I know, how I feel, about you now!_

"How do you feel about me Nance?" Dodger's words were continuously buzzing about in her tortured mind. She knew exactly how she felt, and it wasn't what she'd told him before. That boy looking at her with his wide twinkling eyes had been laying it all out on the line with that question. And now it was too late. Her stupidity had cost her a chance at happiness.

_I was dumb, I was wrong, I let you down_

_But I know how I feel about you now._

He'd been sitting before her, that boy, aching from years of want and practically begging her for little more then a chance. And in her stupidity she had robbed him of his happiness. Nancy looked down at herself in disgust before she clutched the Artful Dodger's hat so tight Fagin feared she may very well break it.

_All that it takes, one more chance,_

_Don't let our last kiss be our last...._

"Plummy and Slam!" Nancy called jubilantly as she entered Fagin's flat. She was in shock to see Dodger still there. "Hello Dodge," she said quietly. It had been two days since their blow out. He looked as though he'd over slept, that might explain why he was still at the house.

"I'm sorry," was his only reply. Nancy made to interrupt but he held up a hand to silence her. "Please let me finish Nance. 'Course you ain't got no choice 'bout wot Bill does to ya, and I'm sorry for suggestin' otherwise. You're the strongest woman I know Nancy, please." Nancy felt alarm sweep her as for the second time that week the Artful Dodger cried. "Please forgive me." Immediately Nancy rushed across the flat and bent down to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Of course I forgive you Dodge," she said smiling at him. "Now let me see that smile of yours eh?" Dodger flashed her his all too happy smile and tried to hide the blush creeping into his cheeks from where she had kissed him. "Good lad, now out on the job with ya. Earn something nice Dodge, live up to your name why don't ya?" He nodded vigorously as he placed his hat on his head and walked out the door. That was the last time the two ever saw each other.

_I'm out of my mind just to show...you_

"Come my dear," Fagin said trying to comfort the girl as she sobbed even harder. "The Artful, he was a good lad, clever lad. He wouldn't have wanted to see you like this," Fagin said trying to calm her down. Nancy looked down at her flesh, free of bruises. Healed and safe, just how Dodger had always wanted her.

"Yes he would've," she whispered.

_I know everything changes,_

_I don't care where it takes us,_

_Cause' I know how I feel about you..._

"Something's got to change Fagin," she choked as tears continued to roll. "I can't go on like this any longer. I'm broken without him Fagin, I'm lost!"

_Can we bring yesterday, back around?_

_Cuz' I know how I feel, about you now!_

_I was dumb I was wrong, I let you down. _

_But I know how I feel, about you now._

_Not a day, pass me by_

_Not a day, pass me by_

_When I don't think about you...._

"You're right my dear something must change, and that's this pity party. As hard as it is right now you have to except that Dodger's been nabbed my dear. He's not coming back, ever. Keep your chin up my dear, he wouldn't of wanted you to cry. He can't come back my dear, we must try to move on." Nancy's tear filled eyes flashed like wildfire as she stared at the old man.

_And there's no, movin' on_

_Cause I know you're the one..._

"If he can't come to me," she whispered. "I'll go to him." Fagin looked at her as though she was mad.

"What are you going to do dear? Go get nabbed by the beak so they'll transport you as well." Slowly Nancy's eyes traveled from the room, her only ever real home, to Fagin, her only ever real family, and finally to that hat in her hands. Dodger her only ever real friend.

"That," she said slowly standing up, "is exactly what I'm going to do."

_And I can't be without, you...._

_Can we bring yesterday, back around?_

_Cuz I know how I feel about you now..._

Nancy threw her arms around the old man's neck. Her embrace was bittersweet as she thought of Dodger lying ahead of her, somewhere out there she was sure.

"You were one of the only to people to ever help me in life Fagin," she said by way of goodbye "and I shall never forget you as long as I live." Fagin gently patted Nancy's soft red hair. She was sickeningly alarmed to see the tears in his eyes.

"Nor I you my dear." Nancy stepped out of Fagin's home for the last time, hat in hand. Now to Dodger....her Dodger.

_I was dumb, I was wrong,_

_I let you down._

_But I know how I feel about you now._

Nancy looked around the prison camp as she stepped off the boat. The place looked horrid, she couldn't imagine poor Dodger having been trapped there all this time. His hat was clutched firmly in her hands. They had let her bring one personal item with her, and that hat had been the first thing she'd reached for.

_Can we bring yesterday back around?_

_Cuz I know how I feel, about you now!_

_I was dumb, I was wrong,_

_I let you down..._

_But I know how I feel about you now._

Nancy found herself missing London all the more as she walked awkwardly through the place. It was hot, it was humid, it was miserable. Nancy was in such a daze that she found herself not paying much attention at all to where she was stepping. She felt her body bump against something.

"Oi! Watch it!" Not something, someone....her someone!

"Dodger!" she gasped. The boy turned around, perhaps a bit older but still covered in dirt and looking quite the little gentleman.

_But I know how I feel about you now...._

After quite some catching up between the two of them over a little manual labor Nancy found herself bringing up that night at Fagin's long ago.

"Do you remember Dodge, the night you asked me how I felt about you? And I said I couldn't ever love you as more then a brother?" Rather uncomfortably Dodger reached up and scratched his head under his hat before nodding. Nancy stopped work long enough to look him dead in they eyes. "Well," she said quietly "I lied." Dodger's eyes flew up to meet hers.

_Yeah I know how I feel..._

"I love you Jack Dawkins."

_About you now!_


End file.
